In short: Poor route choice but although some difficulties I enjoyed it.In full: I am proud of Cardiff and would love to see it host a prestigious 10k race. This race could be fantastic and attract 10,000 runers! However, although the main parts were in place, several bits could be a lot better;Route; Use the park lands to full effect. Whats happenned to the Millenium Stadium finish? The Stadium offers good facilities, lets use them, if they'll let us!Start; Chip timing, nuf said. get the walkers to the back. The starter needs to be more assertive!Kiddies race; Great. Do it again. I know its a pian but results for the kiddies race would be nice.Price; No quibbles, it is for charity after all. Only thing was that I gave the Post Office £1.50 to have a number and a chip posted to me! I'm not bothered about the tee shirt but I would rather have given my postage to KRUF.

Having said all that, as I have organised a few races in my time, I know how much hassle it is to do. So faults and all, I am grateful for those who bothered to put this on and I would encourage them to do it again next year. In fact, I'll put my money where my mouth is and I'll contact them to offer my services.Date of review: September 5, 2006

In short: Nightmare start, no chip to chip timingIn full: I enjoyed the run after eventually getting into some sort of pace. The first 4-500m or so were annoying!! Trying to dodge walkers and slow joggers. I have no issue with anybody taking part, but if you know you're going to be walking or plodding, then why don't you get at the back!!

On saying this, I still enjoyed it and will be back next year.Date of review: September 5, 2006

In short: A few problems In full: The toilet issue from last year was addressed,but chip to chip timing what is the point of gun to chip especially when you have walkers in front of you and won#t let you pass,there should be starting pens better route than last year, marshalling was pretty poor apart from 1 chap at 7k who was very good.More water as it seems those finishing over 50 mins got no water just Redbull!!advance notice of water station not a problem for me but would like to know that there will be people stopping and walking.

I like this race and will be back next yearDate of review: September 5, 2006

In short: Good weather, pity about the walkers / sharp turn at the start but worst of all no chip to chip time - whats that all about!! Come of Cardiff sort it for next year, you are our capitol city Date of review: September 5, 2006

In short: I thout it was good. But the last time I ran a 10K was 1992...In full: …and at that time I was a sprightly 14 year old sporting what can only be described as a Chesney Hawkes hair style (oh, the shame)!

I returned to running only 9 weeks ago…now sporting a thinning hair do cunningly disguised underneath a umbro baseball cap.

Enough about hair do’s and the like…onto the race:

Negatives

I agree with many of the comments below; especially the utter chaos at the start. I decided to go to the start line about 10 minutes before the scheduled 10:30 start; naively thinking that the gent on the PA would instruct us to make our way there. I’m sure that he said that he’d let us know when to leave for the Start line…but maybe the pre race nerves made me hear things?!

Also, the first kilometre was spent artfully dodging [and sometimes not! I splashed a load of people when I ran straight through a huge puddle…sorry! ; )] people who decided to either go at a gentle jog or even walk - it would have been good if the race was staggered based on the estimated race time runners stated on their entry form…or something similar.

The hair pin bend at 500 metres was silly and potentially dangerous…especially so near to a mass start.

The doubling back going into Bute park near the royal collage of music and drama certainly didn’t work; why not extend the park section of the race across the river and into Pontcanna and Llandaff Fields? I regularly run a 8K route through Bute Park, Pontcanna Fields and Llandaff Fields without doubling back on myself; I see it as my ‘green gym’ and it offers some lovely views…a pleasure to run through, and a true asset for the city. Maybe next year?

Positives.

It was a nice and flat route, good for a novice such as myself - and the atmosphere amongst runners was really good. It was also fantastic to have so many spectators at the end, cheering everyone on (I, for one, needed and appreciated that!).

Also, it raised much needed money for a good cause; well worth the £15 I paid as far as I’m concerned. The Kidney Wales Foundation isn’t as big as the other UK wide charities who stage similar races. The race is probably one of its biggest annual fundraisers for the charity…the price is steep; but it goes to a charity in much need of funds, so that’s cool by me.

I’ll definitely run next year - I hope some of the confusion at the start isn’t repeated and the route is looked at and adjusted. However, I sincerely hope that the whole atmosphere throughout the event stays the same. I’m now looking for another event to enter!

In short: Good course, let down by poor organisationIn full: A really good course, scenic and challenging, was let down by a few small but still irritating problems. These being:

- no showers (the literature said limited, but none of the organisers knew where they were!)- pricey admission- not the best marshalling, which led to the leaders running into problems where they merged with the back markers at a cross over point and people wondering on the course and colliding with runners- quite expensive, even though it was for charity this race is an expensive 10k- champion chip system, which claims it will give you an accurate time seemed excellent, but then they only had a map at the end which defeated the object. Also usually they mean results are communicated quickly, but to date nothing has appeared on the web site.

Such a shame as this race has great potential. Cardiff by the way is a very beautiful city and the locally brewed Brains beer was surprisingly good!